Neil Finn takes song request from fan holding up an iPad

Neil Finn, whom you may know better as the lead singer of Crowded House, is hands down one of my favourite song writers. He's also very good live, and is a natural talent when it comes to interacting with the audience. Anyway, here is a funny little video of a recent show at the Seymour Theatre in Sydney, where someone in the audience requested a song by holding up their iPad. I'm not sure if this is a common thing to happen at concerts these days, but Neil, always the entertainer, took it in stride by making a few humorous comments before performing the song. FYI: some of the banter is about "Elias" who was a fan in the audience who tried his best (i.e. not a professional musician) with the piano accompaniment in the previous song.

• [WizarDru]

  I love this song. Well, not this particular version of it with some guy trying to learn how to play the piano in the background, but the album version.

  kazaam, you might want to explain your terms. Is a ‘spot op’ short for ‘spotlight operator’? You seem to have a pretty low threshold for being ‘bitched out’, IMHO.

• [voiceinthedistance]

  As a fan since the early days of Split Enz, I can say that Neil and Tim are two incredible talents, as well as great entertainers and live performers.

• [Infinite Jones]

  If anyone’s interested in a hell of a Neil Finn live album, there’s one called 7 Worlds Collide, which was taken from a few shows he did in Auckland about 10 years ago. Notable because his backing band consisted of Ed O’Brien and Phil Selway from Radiohead, Johnny Marr, and Lisa Germano. Oh, and a certain Eddie Vedder puts in an appearance to sing a some old Split Enz numbers too.

  • [JHR]

    There was a second 7WC, too – I attended – Vedder didn’t make it back but the rest of them did, plus Wilco, KT Tunstall, and more of Neil’s offspring & other great NZ musicians. Incredible night.

• [Anonymous]

  Ha, I was the girl with the ipad. Looove that song so much, it was great to hear it. It was a present from work a couple of days before.

• [sdmike]

  Anyone know what song this is?

  • [abnposh]

    It’s called ‘Sinner’ and it’s from his first solo album ‘Try Whistling This’.

• [Anonymous]

  @sdmike

  It’s called Sinner and is from Finn’s 1998 album Try Whistling This.

• [JonStewartMill]

  I know what album I’ll be listening to on my drive home. Thanks for the memory jog.

• [kazaam]

  wizarddru. . .

  sorry for the vernacular. . . yes, spot op is spotlight operator.
  it’s quite amazing how tempers flare in theatre and concert venues. however, this was the first and (hopefully) only time i was yelled at for someone else’s mistake with an audience of a several hundred people listening in.

  now, thanks to recapthca, i want to look up some germanska.

• [mneptok]

  Crowded House? Great band, but … what about Split Enz?

  Give The Choral Sea from True Colours a listen. Or Six Months In A Leaky Boat, the only pop song I know of that includes the Maori word Aotearoa.

• [Dave Ng]

  Just in case we have folks who are curious about the “previous” song. You can see it at this link.

• [Griefer]

  I’m a huge fan of Try Whistling This – just a great album. Neil is great live too – we got to see him at the Wiltern Theatre here in LA a few years back.

• [Anonymous]

  Just bought his album based on this post, what a fabulous song and beautiful performer.

• [Anonymous]

  kazzam, in my 18 years experince as a both a fan and someone who has worked ‘behind the sences’ when there HAS been a time Neil ‘lost his temper’ with someone they fully deserved it.
  Oh so he yelled at you and then you did’nt listen to his music any more? you poor baby. Some people would call that throwing a tantrum I think. Why don’t you run along and listen to some Justin Bieber instead.

• [Anonymous]

  Indeed 7WC II (there is a single and a double cd called The Sun Came Out)was fantastic,I was at both the 2001 & 2009 7 Worlds and they were magic.
  And Try Whistling This is one of my favourite cds by anyone, ever.
  mneptok, Neil’s song ‘Can You Hear Us’ also has Aotearoa in it

• [Anonymous]

  Before “Crowded House” there was “Split Enz”. Neil is a wonderful human being.

• [kazaam]

  i got bitched out by neil finn during a concert once.
  in the late 90′s they were playing a free concert in boston. i was a spot op for the show. during the show he gestured to the guitarist, so i got on headset to ask the lighting director if i should move over. he told me to stay on neil. after the song finished neil yelled, rather bitchily, for the spot ops to get a clue and move to the guitarist when he made the gesture.
  it was an open air concert, and it wasn’t night yet, so i couldn’t hide behind the crowd control gates or the cover of night.
  never put much time into listening to his music since. . . and his name has pretty much become synonymous with the word, ‘dingleberry’ to me.

  • [Anonymous]

    Yurp.
    Having that “yelled at the wrong guy” experience seems a pretty illogical premise to the ‘dingleberry music’ argument. Would be more understandable if you said you don’t like the band instead.

    Yes, I understand your not liking to their music because of that bad experience, but I think that’s not something you should flail around here among genuine fans who mostly have an interface with Crowded House only through their iPod or at a distance.